Abstract
Hovgaard Ridge is an 1800 m high bathymetric high in the Fram Strait, the only deep-water gateway between the Arctic Ocean and the other World’s oceans. The slopes of the ridge provide evidence of various types of sediment reworking, including (1) up to 12 km wide single and merged slide scars with maximum ~30 m high headwalls and some secondary escarpments; (2) maximum 3 km wide and 130 m deep slide scars with irregular internal morphology, partly narrowing towards the foot of the slope; (3) up to 130 m deep, 1.5 km wide and maximum 8 km long channels/gullies originating from areas of increasing slope angle at the margins of a plateau on top of the ridge. Most slide scars result presumably from retrogressive failure related to weak layers in contourites or ash. The most likely trigger mechanism is seismicity related to tectonic activity within the nearby mid-ocean fracture zone. Gully/channel formation is suggested to result from cascading water masses and/or from sediment gravity flows originating from failure at the slope break after winnowing on the plateau of the ridge.
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Acknowledgements
The data were collected during the teaching cruise GEO-8144/3144 “Past and present geological processes and climate: from fjords to the deep sea” arranged by the Ph.D. Trainee School in Arctic Marine Geology and Geophysics (AMGG) at the Department of Geology, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway . We thank the captain and crew of R/V Helmer Hanssen, as well as Steinar Iversen, Jan P. Holm and the participating students for their support during and after the cruise. The regional bathymetry in Fig. 25.1a was visualized using Generic Mapping Tools (GMT; Wessel and Smith 1998). Finally, we thank Reidulv Bøe and Maarten Vanneste for their constructive reviews of the manuscript, as well as co-editor Sebastian Krastel for his support.
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Forwick, M., Laberg, J.S., Husum, K., Gales, J.A. (2016). Submarine Mass Wasting on Hovgaard Ridge, Fram Strait, European Arctic. In: Lamarche, G., et al. Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20979-1_25
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